How We Got Here ...

I know you may be saying, "but Phil, blogging is so 2004, why start now?"  Well, so is my flip phone, my Playstation 2 and my haircut, but I am still the proud owner of all three.  Truthfully, my sister Steph is a great writer and she makes it look cool, so I thought would get on the long-since-abandoned band wagon.  For anyone who follows her blog, please do not expect the same from mine.  If it's ever as good, it's likely because she edited it or Jenn flat out wrote it.  If you don't follow her blog, I'll assume you reached this link in error after eating a sandwich that sat out in the sun too long and is now keeping you up at 3:30 in the morning.  Trust me, it's good  http://the-love-grove.blogspot.com/.  If you have time, read on.

A little background on myself and how we got here:  This is in the off-chance that this blog totally kicks ass and is read by tens, nay hundreds of people around the greater Denver and Sheridan metro areas and some of you haven't actually known me since the 6th grade.  I've already mentioned my fantastic wife (I will quickly run of superlatives), but I also have two great kids.  Brynn, age 2.5 and Jonah, age 0.91667.  Any parents reading this blog are probably instantly siezing up at the thought of moving two small kids across the country.  We've also had our moments of breathing into a paper bag, but came out the other side more excited than nervous at the thought of intense humidity, the nation's worst traffic (Halsey, A., Wash Post, 9/27/2011 - Booya Mr. Pope!) and the country's greatest museums all in one place.

A little about the job.  And I mean a little.  I can't talk about it much, especially in a public forum.  It's really pretty dull, but it is classified (even janitors have clearances), so I won't say much.  The best part is all the non-job related perks.  My average drive is down from 45 minutes to 20 and stays pretty much independent of traffic since I stick to side streets.  The TDY package is pretty nice and includes a generous cost of living increase that allows us to keep our house in Denver for when we return in a year.  The best perk though is that this job has allowed us financially to have Jenn stay at home with the kids for the year.  We both had great stay at home moms growing up and we're very happy we can give our kids the same, even if it's only for a year.  Jenn was already interested in cutting back her hours at work and the kids aren't in school yet, so the timing couldn't be better.

I could keep talking about the things we're excited about, but then this would get very long and my dream of having 10 people read this regularly would die young.  As an engineer, I like bulleted lists, so here is a subset of my DC bucket list for the year (subject to change without notice, substitutions for an experience of equal value may be done at the author's discretion)

- Being closer to my sister and her husband and taking advantage of it as much as possible

- Going into the city...without kids

- Eating seafood fresh off the boat (I say this for Jenn, not myself)

- Going to a celebrity chef's restaurant...without kids

- Visiting Camden Yard and getting a picture next to a Cal Ripken Jr. statue

- Showing Brynn the HUGE whale in the Museum of Nature and Science

- Visiting my Grandma Peg in Maine, where Jenn will “eat her own body weight in lobster”

- Touring the White House...without kids, this would assuredly turn into a national incident

Please provide suggestions as we explore our new favorite acronym and look us up if you're ever in the area.  Hello DC!